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Sunday, August 3, 2014

Bradley Mousley

An interesting anti-doping case involving a top Australian junior tennis player has been leaked. Read the story here.

The drug in question is ecstasy, but the timelines are more important:

1. Tested positive from a sample collected on March 30, 2014.

2. (Provisional) suspension started in May. The story doesn't actually specify a provisional suspensions, but that's really the only option prior to a Tribunal decision. He missed the junior French Open and Wimbledon as a result.

3. Tribunal hearing set for August 4, 2014.

I haven't been able to find any stories on whether he claimed an injury for pulling out of the junior Grand Slam tournament. If anyone finds any, please let us know

24 comments:

once again the guy whom no one has heard of gets caught and the guy who has won over $70 million in prize money still is put up on a PEDistal (pun intended) by the sport. Makes one want to shake their head.

Interesting: Damien Cox just now during the conversation after Cilic beat Istomin on Sportsnet bringing up Cilic's doping suspension last year. He commented on how it was a weird one. How initially Cilic withdrew from Wimbledon citing injury but then it came out that he had tested positive. And exactly how hard are they going on these men. And he said there needs to be more transparency in the sport. You said it Damien. I wish others would as well.

I see recreational drugs and PEDS differently. An 18 year old screwing up and taking XTC is the one situation where I can deal with non-immediate disclosure.

I can see why sports ban non-performance enhancing recreational drugs (clean image for sport, healthier athletes), but an athlete with a recreational drug problem is ill, and I don't think the public need to know the details.

We had Llagostera last year with a similar case - got handed a ban for two years for using meth which seemed appropriate, she is old enough and should know - also there were inconsistencies in her explanation ("water bottle" excuse) and so, as a consequence, she got served. No compassion from me here.

XTC functions both as stimulant and hallucinogen and is mostly being used in a party context (as the claim with Mousley goes), yet, it needs a strong investigation to see which is the right explanation for Mousley's positive.

Since he still had significantly high levels in his system at the time of testing, you could also make the case he used it to fire himself up and be aggressive for a match. One should also factor in if he is using XTC to coope with the pressures of a junior tennis system, the repetetiveness and boredom of practice and the disproportionate expectations of his parents, coaches and the looming prospect of possibly having to earn money from it. If one has become the project/investment of coaches and parents, the escape to recreational drug use seems one obvious way of dealing with it.

A fair "verdict" needs to consider all of the above and should offer help and counselling (independent from his usual care-takers and handlers) and reach out to a young player to help him solve his issues when getting caught with XTC if all indicators point to a form of self-medication.

Every case is different - but it seems particularly harsh to hand young players a 2yr ban which in actuality only the many real dopers on the tour should face - but which are being spared for being the cash cows of the whole circus.

"Health-wise, some of these drugs, my life could definitely be limited. I could have a shorter lifespan. I don't know. Right now I feel great. We were kind of like marathon runners — very skinny and light. We took testosterone here and there to recover, but steroids were not a big drug, at least in road cycling. I had little problems here and there, (because) we had to use needles a lot. Over time sometimes you get a little infection. I could have died one time when I got a bad bag of blood."

People forget about the health risks of doping. Adverse effects of more conventional doping agents/strategies are fairly well-documented (although not so much over the long term in healthy people), but the risks of the newer peptides GHRP-6, CJ-1295, AOD-9604, pralmorelin, hexarelin, tesamorelin, sermorelin and all the others are not well-characterized.

Since this is a public health issue, I believe there are sufficient grounds for regulatory public health authorities to get more involved in anti-doping.

This is becoming a joke; even by Nadal's clownish standards. Perhaps the loss to Kyrgios has scared him, or maybe he does not want to lose to an in form Federer or Djokovic. The fools will go on about how Nadal is unbeatable when not injured.

If he comes back to win the USO, I don't see how tennis can remain credible in the eyes of anyone watching it.

Some things that Patrick McEnroe said before the 2009 Australian Open final between Nadal, and Federer. Note that Nadal had a grueling semi, and only 1 days rest, and Federer had an easier semi, and two days rest.

Patrick McEnroe, former player, U.S. Davis Cup coach and ESPN commentator, called Nadal's semifinal win over Verdasco, "the most physically punishing hard-court match I have ever seen filled with powerful shot-making, relentless defense and phenomenal endurance -- of mind and body."And Rafa will have to be superhuman to overcome that plus a fresh, eager Federer."

McEnroe called Nadal "the Lance Armstrong of tennis. If anyone can bounce back from such an effort," McEnroe said, "it would be Nadal. What can he do? Rest, sleep, massage, eat and drink as much as possible."

From :http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jan/31/sports/sp-australian-open31

If Nadal withdraws from the USO, what does that mean? Is he really injured then? Did he withdraw because he was scared he would lose? Or, maybe he has been silently banned(not for the first time either)?

Agreed. We can only speculate. Although I'm sure the HGH corrected to growth factors issue did something, either as a warning to Rafa's team or to the ITF testing team. Either way, whatever happened after that, we don't know

Maybe the same reason Djoker lost a head shaker to Monfils in Cincy as well as Wawrinka against Benneteau. Honestly? Benneteau? LOL. Do they need a little extra time to prepare for the last major of the year?

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"She kind of has, like, almost the game of a man. That's what it feels like."-Jelena Jankovic describing Samantha Stosur's masculine approach to the game of tennis.

"Players can use short-acting steroids in combination with human growth hormone which will produce muscle mass and enormous power, and while they can stop just before a competition and test clean, they still get the performance benefit of the drugs" Former chief executive of the Australian Sports Drug Agency, John Mendoza, 2002, claiming that tennis was approaching a crisis.

"To say that tennis today is clean, you have to be living in a dream world."Nicolas Escude, French Davis Cup player, 2002

[Former number 1, Marcelo] Rios thinks that the ATP protects Agassi of doping "I know that if nandrolone were found on Agassi, they would not disclose it. He is a very prominent, very popular player and if he were to fall, the world of tennis would fall with him." The Chilean remembered a case in Australia 2002 "where there was a control and Agassi disappeared, saying that they were going to kidnap his son..."

Also,

"Suspicion among the other players had long been rife that he [Agassi] may have used some substances to help him become one of the fittest and strongest guys around, although there was never any proof. There were some dubious circumstances, none more than his early-morning withdrawal from the defence of his title at the 2002 Australian Open, citing a wrist injury."

-Former Wimbledon champion, Pat Cash

"The ATP also suffers from a dilemma. Imagine if Federer or Nadal were caught doping. I probably would not suspend them, because they are too important. But where is the line?"- Former Pro Andrei Medvedev

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"...in this steroid era we have lived in for the last decade or so, it has become wise for us in the media, to at least be wary of a player such as Nadal, who is so cut, so ripped, so buff for a tennis player, because we’ve never seen a good tennis player with that kind of physique."

"I can definitely say the same thing [discussing Steffi Graf’s claim that she had played against at least one top player who used steroids]. Steroids can really make a difference, physically and mentally. I’d be really disappointed if I had been ranked No. 2 behind someone who took steroids."-Chris Evert 1992

"Someone tried to get in the development, doing a drug test," [Venus] Williams said. "If I wasn't tested in the next two hours, I wouldn't be playing on tour. You know, there's always someone at the gates, trying to get in. Normally, I tell the gate, 'Tell them Venus moved to Siberia some months ago.' "

... she had trouble with her password in the computerized system overseen by the World Anti-Doping Agency. She also said registered mail at her home could not be signed off on since she was traveling to WTA tournaments.- Yanina Wickmayer explains (in a dog ate my homework kind of way) why she was unavailable for mandatory drug testing.